Mmmm: Lemony
Sometimes I am stupefied by the breathtaking depth of philosophical / ethical thinking on exhibit in the political discourse of modern politicians. Sharron Angle, I'm told, is a Republican candidate for US Senate in Nevada. Here is part of her response in answer to a question about abortion in the context of a father raping his daughter.
"Two wrongs don't make a right. And I have been in the situation of counseling young girls, not 13 but 15, who have had very at-risk, difficult pregnancies. And my counsel was to look for some alternatives, which they did. And they found that they had made what was really a lemon situation into lemonade."
— Sharron Angle [quoted by Matthew Rettenmund, "Senate Candidate Angle: No Abortion In Cases Of Incestuous Rape", Towleroad, 8 July 2010.]
First, of course, is the fascinating "lemon situation", which apparently can be made into metaphorical lemonade in the same way that actual metaphorical lemons can. Such transcendent abstraction!
And, naturally, while assuming what Ms. Angle believes is the high moral ground in the abortion "debate", likening rape by one's father to metaphorical lemons does rather trivialize the situation in a surprising way. As Mr. Rettenmund goes on to comment:
Raped by your father = lemon. Raising your child/sibling by that father as a teenager when the father is hopefully in prison = lemonade.
It's not clear where the sugar (generally recognized as necessary in making lemonade) is in this analogy, but never mind–this is advanced political analysis.
As is "two wrongs don't make a right" another example of really, really advanced political analysis right there in the adjoining sentence. The key thing, for which we need to rely on keen political minds, is identifying two wrongs so that one of them can be avoided in each lemony situation.
I'm thinking "two idiots don't make a rocket scientist", but I'm not going to say it.
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Will Rogers Moments